OPTIMILLER: AN INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENT THAT HELPS STUDENTS IN THE UNDERSTANDING, DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION OF MILLER ELECTRONIC OSCILLATOR CIRCUITS FOR QCM SENSORS

摘要

The quartz crystal oscillator used as mass sensor in damping media suffers significant losses implying the need to adapt the oscillator design to compensate them. In this paper, a CAD tool to help students in the understanding, design and optimization of Miller oscillators for the realization of high sensitivity quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensors for liquid media is presented. This tool is oriented not only to the practical teaching of advanced Thickness Shear Mode (TSM) acoustic wave sensors for mass changes detection, but also to aid designers in the development of QCM sensors.